The supposed lioness near Berlin turned out to be a wild boar. Experts now say that the mix-up was avoidable.
Berlin – Michael Grubert, Mayor of Kleinmachnow, announced on Friday after a 30-hour search that the animal sighted was not a lioness. The trend was more “towards the wild boar”. Animal track experts uncovered the lion error.
Supposed lioness turns out to be a wild boar – experts expose the spook
Michael Grubert presented himself to the press after the aborted search for an alleged lioness. As the mayor stated, there is “no acute danger” anymore. Criticism was mainly due to the procedure in the search for the suspected big cat. The search is said to have cost several 100,000 euros, and more than 220 police officers were on duty. Heiko Teggatz, deputy head of the German police union, called the procedure a “scandal”, but according to him the police had no other choice.
As Grubert stated, the lion spook was cleared up by the company CyberTracker, which, among other things, analyzed the alleged “piece of evidence”, a video. The pros were able to quickly determine from the posture of the supposed lioness in particular that it was not a lioness, since lions make a cat’s back when they bend down. In wild boar, on the other hand, the back would remain straight – as can be clearly seen in the photos. According to the mayor, the appearance of the tail also indicated a wild boar.
Experts doubted early on that it was a lioness
Already during the search for the supposed lioness, some experts expressed doubts as to whether it could be such a predator. “If a lioness had chewed up a wild boar there, the dogs would have found something,” said Achim Gruber, executive director of the Institute for Animal Pathology in Berlin. Berlin wildlife expert Derk Ehlert also told RBB Inforadio that he only saw two wild boars on the video examined.
CyberTracker’s experts, who gave what is arguably the definitive confirmation of the lioness-wild-boar mix-up, told Picturethat the tracks found would be much too small for a lioness. “A lion’s footprint would have been as big as my hand. We would have seen very clear, asymmetrical toes.” At the press conference, Mayor Grubert did not deny that mistakes had been made: “We evaluated the video together far too late,” he admitted.
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